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Amazon buys up Middle-earth, it searches the One Ring! (Rings of Power news thread)


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2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I think there will come a day when fans will note the irony of how films once decried in some circles for their relative lack of faithfulness to the books, made without the involvement or approval of the Estate and in fact done much to Christopher Tolkien's chagrin, were in fact more faithful than a series made with the approval and involvement of the Tolkien estate.

 

It’s not irony at all, seeing as how the TV schlock deal did not happen till after Christopher Tolkien resigned as director of the Tolkien estate. Which was of course no coincidence at all.

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4 hours ago, Brónach said:

And who would play him anyway.

 

Whoever the character turns out to be, he's played by Daniel Weyman, who to be fair does have some resemblence to McKellen.

 

We also have Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) as our ersatz-Aragorn to some extent, and certainly Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) is our Legolas proxy, Durin IV is to some extent a Gimli-proxy, and like I said we have fem-Frodo and fem-Sam, we have the requisite forbidden love affair between mortal and immortal, etc...

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I really don't want to be too negative. I think some of the characters and storylines (and visuals) show a lot of promise.

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It doesn't have to be bad but I wish this energy in making things went to something else. Or at least that it didn't want to use the format of heavily serialized drama that jumps every episode between five paralell storylines. Or at least that it didn't compress the storyline to fit itself into that "prestige television" structure.

 

By far the most fun thing to me here could be the bits and pieces of flashbacks to the first age, which i guess might play in a similar tone to the prologue in Fellowship of the Ring. Or the CAST IT INTO THE FIRE! scene. But those may also turn into "ooooh references I recognize that thing!".

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On 10/06/2022 at 3:37 PM, Brónach said:

those may also turn into "ooooh references I recognize that thing!".

 

I mean, I generally don't begrudge prequels "for doing the prequel thing." When, within a single movie, a line or a visual are repeated in changing contexts, we consider it a good example of setup and payoff.

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i don't mean "i recognize that thing!" from the future, i mean "i recognize that thing!" from the first age, if the so called Tolkien State is being as lenient as they say. But that might not be a real problem for me...

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I do remember thinking "are these showrunners doing the Second Age wishing they were doing the First?" The amount of First Age material they're putting into this: showing Galadriel as a little girl in Valinor, meeting at least one of her brothers and learning what befell him, possibly having another of her brothers be the season villain, etc: I mean, its a little much.

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It wouldn't surprise me.

 

But everything before the second age would fit the sort of thing they seem to be trying to make here, in structure and rythm and maybe tone and definitely literalism (there are metaphorical things)... well, very badly

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm gonna copy what I posted about the music on Reddit:

The theme used here (D-A-A, G-A-B, C-B-A, then D-A-A, B-C-D, C-B-A) takes a lot of inspiration from the Gondor theme (D-A-G, G-A-C-A, downward phrase, then D-A-G, G-A-C, A-C-D, end with downward phrase). And both use a Dorian Dm-G chord progression. Had this appeared in the LotR trilogy, I'd have read it as a hint to Gondor, The Fellowship or even The Edge of Night.

That said, it's in no way so particular that it rules out a coincidence. Like the other music we've heard so far, it's exactly what I'd imagine a different composer trying to emulate Shore would sound like.

trailer motif.png

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This thing is walking a very fine line. On one hand, I can appreciate and relate to the message of finding love and community in the things we love.

One the other hand, it's pretty fucking tacky to explicitly make the "thing we love" Amazon's own property, not Tolkien's work as a whole.

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I think Nick is talking more generally.

 

I mean, Meteor Man, Hobbits that seem to have emerged right out a local Peter Pan play, a village that's magically turned into Mordor, etc...

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FWM1d1zaQAAKH7C?format=jpg&name=900x900

 

Evidently this show is hellbent on ticking every bullshit box imaginable. How anyone could have any kind of faith in it at this point is beyond me.

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3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I was almost on the Second Age show when we reported this

Made me think you had worked on the Amazon show for a second...

Regarding the 50/50 split, it's another one of those decisions that might work for the show itself (it's a fantasy world, who's to say that Numenoreans aren't OP regardless of gender?) but that will make the LotR trilogy seem hella regressive by comparison.

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2 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

will make the LotR trilogy seem hella regressive by comparison.

 

If one considers that sort of thing regressive.

 

I think its fair to say most people don't.

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8 hours ago, Chen G. said:

If one considers that sort of thing regressive.

I know, but you get what I mean. Seeing Éowyn struggle to be allowed on the battlefield might seem weird if the World of Men was a radically gender-equal society just a few thousand years earlier.

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Also, seeing the people of Middle Earth marvel at the courage of Hobbits would be a little weird after Elanor and Poppy (urgh!) start getting mixed-up in all the earth-shattering events that will ensue in the show.

 

I fear like this show is going to pull a lot of that sort of stuff on us. We'll have to wait and see.

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I mean, my co-host practically wished the Brian Cox casting (superb!) into being about two months in advance, so if we wish it hard enough...

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I think Cox was up for the role of Balin. So was Peter Mullan, who's playing Durin III here, another excellent choice.

 

O'Hara should be in everything, anyway.

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Yet another teaser: 

 

EDIT: I'll repost an HD version after it proliferates far enough that it won't get taken down again.

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"Come to me, come to me, lets run away..."

 

We know Disa sings in the show. I have to say, not a very Moria-ish kind of song...

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I didn't get to take a proper look at it, but did seem a little unconventional compared to the more folkish Dwarven songs we've heard before (mainly Misty Mountains). Not entirely convinced it's music from the show at all.

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The flying birds at :15 in this teaser don't look remotely real to me, there'e no weight to them. They remind me of something from Harry Potter....like paper birds that a wizard animated.  How long have they had to put this together?

 

It's too slick. And looks and feels exactly like Wheel of Time to me.

 

 

 

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I think some parts of it look better than other parts. The birds are...yeah, not my favourite. I tend to like my fantasy more earth-bound.

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In LOTR fan circles, are people excited for this show? Most people I've spoken to don't seem remotely interested and will wait and read reviews from Tolkien fans before possibly watching the show.

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A lot of people seem to share Nick's apprehensions, and I don't blame them in the least. The Hobbits, Meteor Man and all that kind of stuff is a big turn-off.

 

But others are remotely interested or guardedly anticipating it.

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6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I tend to like my fantasy more earth-bound.

 

This. You can't overstate how important this was to the success of Jackson's LOTR (not to mention GOT).

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Ironically, The War of the Rohirrim - an animated film! - might prove to be much much more historical-feeling than this live-action show: I mean, they brought a Mumak and (per Boyens) Orcs into it, but its mostly a story of Men fighting with Men, without any overt use for magic or magical creatures.

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How is that ironic? I wouldn't expect a production set in the Second Age to feel historical. I'd expect it to feel like, you know, fantasy. Or mythology.

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28 minutes ago, A. A. Ron said:

Or mythology.

 

I guess some people define that term differently. For me, mythology is fictionalized prehistory and therefore, being mythological, it should feel very matter-of-fact like a historical movie, rather than being self-consciously fantastical or surreal or what have you.

 

Clearly its a balance. These films aren't trying to totally historicize the fantasy and obviously their imaginativeness is a big part of their appeal. Jackson had a kind of barometer for it: "Braveheart meets Legend" and, like him, I prefer erring hard on the Braveheart side; and boy did anything ever feel more Legend than those Harfoots?

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1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Jackson had a kind of barometer for it: "Braveheart meets Legend"

 

Yeah, I've seen this quote, but to be honest, I don't see a lot of Legend in LOTR, at least visually. Braveheart, definitely, the inspiration there is clear. I think Jackson was speaking more metaphorically when it comes to Legend, i.e. he was just using Legend as an example of having fantasy elements in a film otherwise grounded in history.

 

Fellowship, The Two Towers and early seasons of Game of Thrones got this balance about perfectly in my opinion. 

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